Lucien Guerinel

Born in Marseille (France) in 1930, Lucien Guérinel started to learn music alone while studying science at the University in Marseille. After that, he studied harmony with the organist Marcel Prevot and with the conductor Andre Jouve, and composition with the composer Louis Saguet.

He has been living in Marseille since 1962 after seven years in Paris (1954 - 1961). Aesthetics is more an intimate matter than a social order, so Lucien Guerinel does not want to join official and fashionable trends and he has developed his own style.

Second prize at the string quartet competition of the Philip Morris Foundation in Paris in 1983 for his work "Strophe 21", he was also finalist of the "Rendez-vous international du piano en Creuse " competition in 1990 for "Chants-Espaces", and in 1994 for "Songe, Mouvement". In 1989, Lucien Guérinel was elected to the "Academie de Marseille" and in 1990 he received the medal of the city of Aix en Provence.

He has been commissioned by numerous organizations, such as the CNR of Marseille, the Groupe de Musique experimental de Marseille, the Orchestre regional de Cannes, the Nouvel Ensemble contemporain de Rouen, Resonance Contemporaine, CNIPAL, Musicatreize, the French Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the Festival d'Ambronay. He is also a poet (with three published compilations), and a music critic for newspapers such as Le Méridional and La Provence.


Discography :

- Works for strings and 2nd quartet (Lyrinx)
- Vocal works (ensemble Musicatreize, Lyrinx)
- Works for quintet with "six Bagatelles " (Quintette a vent de Marseille, Plein Jeu)
- Works for keyboard (Plein Jeu)


Presse :

"By the string music of fifty-nine-year-old Lucien Guerinel that is here is wonderfully elegiac, evoking a songful, if resigned, lyricism. This is music of fantasy, eschewing traditional polyphony while seeming constantly in variation with itself." Stephen Ellis, Fanfare, May-June 1989.

"With the premiere of the work by Lucien Guérinel, "Sept fragments d'Archiloque", our twelve singers from Aix are in a well-known country : no earth tremor, but a quarter of an hour with a superb French writing enlightened by a wide range of colours and rhythms..." Jacques Doucelin, le Figaro, August 1990.

"The Six Bagatelles by Lucien Guerinel are six small jewels... " Jean-Yves Bras, Diapason, June 1993.



Principal works :

"7 Fragments d'Archiloque", for twelve voices

"4 poemes d'Eugenio Montale", for twelve voices

" Amour" (3 ghazels) by Hafiz, for 2 female voices and instrumental ensemble

" Les sept portes" (Yves Namur), for double choir, 16 strings, 2 percussions

6 string quartets(the 4th with 2 female voices)

8 preludes for piano

"24 preludes pour Nolde", for soprano, narrator, piano and tape

6 works for a soloist and a string orchestra

4 cycles of melodies for voice and piano

"Chants, espaces" for 2 pianos